Letters to the Editor
aveutter
Published Letters: 198 Editor's Choice: 32
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Roster changes, Interconference play, too many games
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I may know less about statistics, but I know that if your sample is changing the results won't be valid. Back in 72' some teams actually kept pinch hitters on the bench, but gradually the practise diminished, probably for a number of reasons. The schedule expanded, and players get more days off, and managers like to platoon, and make defensive swaps late in the game. Everyone on the roster of today's baseball team has to contribute.
Looking at my home team, the Padres, I see a bunch of role players, (except for the bullpen closer) who are team players. Pitchers hit, they run the bases, and they pinch hit on occasion. The difference between the way this team is structured and the way the Red Sox and Yankees are structured is like night and day. The reasons for this are unclear, but the DH is a symptom of the problem.
I don't think adding roster space is the answer either. AL ballparks are built for high scoring games. Perhaps a reshuffling of AL and NL teams would introduce some competition, but the DL removes about one third of the element of skill from an NL team, which that team has to dedicate attention toward during the regular season.
This difference in the style of play should even out, but if you were a football team playing in a league where you had to put an extra man on the line of scrimmage to protect the passer, and you get to the Superbowl, and the other team doesn't rush the passer period, you are in a lousy matchup.
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Monkey's Uncle Sam: Reports from the Banana Republic
[Read the article: A rate-cut paradox]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Argentina is going through the same inflation hoax as the United States, ( and the President's wife is all set to succeed him). Inflation bond holders have been slaughtered of late, because the numbers were pretty high to begin with. Not so in the Banana Republica of America, where the CPI is flat line, and oil is nearing $100 a barrel. One pundit reported that the bond vigilantes were hedging their positions with gold. When than unwinds, oh brother.
Meanwhile if you buy TIPS from your Monkey's Uncle Sam, he guarantees your principle, and what are the first rules of investing? Buy value when it is being discounted. (and preserve capital) Inflation is a bargain right now. Even Bernanke is worried about TIPS, and not because he is afraid Joe America will lose money buying them either.
When inflation hits 10% and interest rates are still half, (The new all powerful OZ has it under control, just like the BOJ), those TIPS holders will be celebrating, and the secondary market in inflation indexed securities wil soar.
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What the cinematic form requires
[Read the article: Beyond the Multiplex: Did a movie ruin your favorite book?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is a matter of books and films, whether a book is faithfully rendered or not, brings nothing to the discussion. Probably the best writer, in terms of bringing a novel to bear that was already prepared for the transfer to film, it was James M. Cain. His writing style most perfectly delivered what the cinematic form requires, and the novel will always serve the film industry and its peculiar needs.
Film has rather simple needs; economy and dialogue. I look forward to "Into the Wild," because it isn't a novel, has no dialogue, and relies on a very sketchy character. In some ways its the filmmakers perfect choice. Perhaps the perfect novel awaiting a film was "Mildred Pierce", if you were looking for a faithful translation, forget it. There were no murders in the book and the time frame of the film story was turned completely around. In contrast the "Unbearable Lightness of Being" was at least faithful to that part of the story which was a romantic narrative, about two of the characters in the story, sans the self reflexive structures, and symbolic diversions.
Novels since Cain, have tended to indulge in what I would call marketing techniques, long chapters of description, ultimately meant to be cut from the final product, but which glamorize, or characterize, without actually building character, the actors role in the story. In the film "Midnight Cowboy" a lot of dialogue is lifted directly from the text of the novel, but the opening sequence, a series of flashbacks of Joe Buck is a compressed, stylized version of the entire first half of the novel. It's a very effective translation.
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Same old same old
[Read the article: Bush's old world disorder]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Some shadowy arm of foreign policy is probably backing Bhutto, and some are backing Musharraf, but who is who remains the real question. Islamabad is a long way from Baghdad. Right now some secretive plan probably exists to bring out the nuclear weapons. Bhutto may be the bag man, or woman.
We were going to bomb them back to the Stone Age, if they didn't sign on to our ideas on the war on terror. No reason to believe the NeoCons will quit now. As usual the liberal press raises the banner of hope, the Democratic leadership will probably drop the ball. Has anyone noticed Nancy on Nancy? Pelosi on Nord, Consumer Product Safety Commission? We can't even impeach her. Sad sad sad. I love to read this stuff Sidney, especially with no Daily Show, but nothing is going to happen until 2008 and maybe not even then.